Rangers can easily rattle off 3 straight wins heading into the All Star Break
Glass (15) celebrates with teammates (Scott Audette/Getty Images)
The Rangers sit second in the Metropolitan division and fourth in the Eastern Conference. Sounds comfortable enough, but it isn’t. With just three games between now and the All-Star break they sit just 4 points up from oblivion.
After throwing everything AND the kitchen at Ryan Miller and the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers found a way to win it in OT. That continued their see-saw efforts since 12/22 against the Ducks where they’ve been alternating wins ever since. Now, against 3 straight non-playoff opponents, the Rangers could give themselves some much needed breathing room.
Tonight at Carolina: 12th spot, 50 points
Sunday at Ottawa: 11th spot, 50 points
Tuesday vs Buffalo: 15th spot, 42 points
Yesterday the Rangers made it clear after practice that they need to get these wins heading into the break.
[su_quote cite=”NYPOST” url=”https://nypost.com/2016/01/21/rangers-mission-is-clear-before-much-needed-all-star-break/”]“I would like to go into it, in all honesty, on a very positive note,” coach Alain Vigneault said of the six-day break, which goes from Tuesday through Sunday. “That would be a good feeling, and I think well-deserved. We’re working really hard to get our game to where it needs to be here, and it would be something real positive for us.” [/su_quote]
The same feelings were reiterated by Henrik Lundqvist as well.
[su_quote cite=”NYPOST” url=”https://nypost.com/2016/01/21/rangers-mission-is-clear-before-much-needed-all-star-break/”]“Right now, we’re just focused on [Friday],” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “But we know, with three games to go, let’s leave everything out there for the three games, and we’ll see where we are. Of course you want to win, of course you want to end on a good note, but it’s important that we just focus on [Friday] now and move on from there.”[/su_quote]
Paille and Girardi (Zimbio)
AV said, and I agree that the Rangers game 5 v 5 is getting there. Of course to me their biggest issue has been the PK, but at least they are trying to fix it. They did so by looking outside of the organization and bringing in PK specialist Daniel Paille.
For those that love fancy stats like corsi, over their last 11 games (since win vs ANA)their CF is almost 52%. Once again, I’m not a fan of the stat but when used over a decent period of time and applied solely to a team’s performance it has value. What I do take away from their play is that they are getting lots of scoring chances and need to start burying more of them. Defensively, they are more stable 5 on 5 but still tend to give up way to many quality chances for my liking.
Still, they are playing opponents who are very beatable. There is no excuse for them not to come out of this with 5 to 6 points. Three solid efforts and the Rangers could head into the break on a 4 game winning streak and solidify themselves in the Metro division and quite possibly the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Unless they can’t stay out of the penalty box!
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